Migrant camp Labour vowed to shut will be expanded

Telegraph

30-07-2025

An asylum camp on a former RAF base which Labour promised to shut is to be expanded to take more migrants in the face of a summer surge in Channel crossings.
The Home Office announced the number of migrants housed on Wethersfield RAF base near Braintree, Essex will be increased by 445 from the current limit of 800 to 1,225 as a contingency.
Sir Keir Starmer pledged in July, just before the election, that he believed Wethersfield 'needs to close' as Labour sought to move asylum seekers off large sites and out of hotels.
The two other major sites identified by the Tories – the Bibby Stockholm barge and RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire – have both been abandoned and will be shut by Labour as accommodation for asylum seekers.
However, the Home Office is facing a continued surge in migrants crossing the Channel with more than 24,000 having reached the UK so far this year, up 45 per cent on last year.
In an updated statement, the Home Office said Wethersfield regular occupancy was now just under 800 but there were 445 contingency bed spaces 'which can be brought into use to help manage short-term pressures across the wider asylum accommodation estate.'
'If called upon, the contingency bed spaces will only be utilised on a temporary basis until such time as the wider accommodation estate is able to manage demand, and the number accommodated at Wethersfield will be reduced back down to 800 bed spaces as soon as possible thereafter,' it said.
'Any increase in inflow onto the site to use contingency bed spaces will be gradual (increasing the maximum inflow from the normal 60 per week to 100 per week) and subject to the same rigorous procedures and reviews as for regular occupancy inflow.'
MDP Wethersfield in Essex is just 30 miles from the scene of confrontations over migrants being housed at a hotel in Epping and has been home to hundreds of single male asylum seekers since July 2023.
The Tories, Essex Police and Crime Commissioner Roger Hirst and Epping district council have urged the Home Office to close the Bell Hotel and move the migrants out. A further protest by around 1,000 people is expected at the hotel on Thursday.
The Epping protests were triggered when Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, a 38-year-old asylum seeker from Ethiopia, was charged with the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl. Mr Kebatu denied the charge when he appeared at Chelmsford magistrates' court on July 17.
'Failed to reduce small boat crossings'
Shadow Housing Secretary James Cleverly, whose constituency covers Wethersfield, urged ministers to shut it.
'I was never happy that asylum seekers were held at Wethersfield and while Home Secretary, secured a cap on the numbers of asylum seekers at there. I remain opposed to any increase,' he said.
'Starmer said the site needs to close, but is now increasing numbers. He and Cooper are doing this because they scrapped the Rwanda plan and failed to reduce small boat crossings. The first half of the year has the highest number of arrivals numbers on record.
'I will keep pushing the Government to reverse this decision and close the site as soon as possible.'
Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel, a local MP who has also campaigned against the use of the site as an asylum camp, said: 'In opposition Labour said they'd close this site down but now they are expanding it because of their stark failure to get to grips with illegal migration.
'Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper opposed every new law I advanced to deal with dangerous people smuggling gangs, including life sentences, and they scrapped my Rwanda partnership, which would have meant illegal migrants being sent there rather than Wethersfield and hotels.
'Labour's dishonesty, incompetence and lack of transparency is making this situation worse and encouraging more illegal migrants to come to Britain.'